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Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
This is truly an international event: 37 players are from the United Arab Emirates, 2 each from Egypt, Nigeria and Zambia, 59 from Uzbekistan, 14 from Armenia, 5 from Russia, 1 from Ukraine (Ivanchuk!), 10 from the Philippines, 13 from China, 6 from the USA. And India? 109 players!
After a bad start, in the third round I was paired against a relatively unknown opponent. There is a good way to get a quick overview of the player. Clicking on "Players" to the right of the news page (if you have a ChessBase Account) or going to the ChessBase Players page https://players.chessbase.com provides an instant overview. You type in the name of your opponent, and within a second you get an overview:
In the Player Portrait you see his Elo development, his results, and how he has fared with different openings – the twenty most often played by him. Clicking on the link to each opening brings up the games, which you can replay and analyse.
During my pre-game preparation, I noticed that my opponent has a narrow repertoire, but but suited to his active style. I understood that he loves active piece play, and he is ready to accept worse pawn structures for that.
Well, after my disastrous start (0/2), I wasn’t willing to enter any tactical battle… I haven’t played standard time control chess for over 1½ year, and I was feeling quite rusty. Yes, I am a retired player, but still my love for chess makes me play from time to time, and I couldn’t resist to this strong open which is organised in the town that I live. Being number 90 by rating, wasn’t really what I could have expected, but nevertheless, I found it challenging! Here's my third round game:
